In one of last spring's catalogs, I wrote about how challenging it can be to take risks -- even risks that your heart is begging
you to take but your mind is resisting with its gamut of 'what ifs?' I talked about the shelter dog I couldn't get out of my
mind. He'd been there for 9 months and was starting to go a little crazy from confinement. He was big, strong, and smart,
was probably going to need significant medical care due to a spinal abnormality, and he was a Pit Bull. Well, I ended up
adopting him.

As I write this, he is curled up at my feet. He's pretty much taken over the house, and if his Kong (a dog toy) goes under
the couch, I return to find the room re-arranged: coffee table over there, couch pulled out from the wall, and ottoman in a
different part of the room from where it started. And yes, he's going to need surgery, as they suspected at the shelter. Even
though he's a handful, he's a reminder to me that just because there are challenges all along the way doesn't mean I
shouldn't have taken the risk. We get so many messages saying that something's wrong if we meet up with obstacles; that if
we're living right, we can do and have it all effortlessly. But things can be hard and worth the stretching like mad we have to
do to make it all work. When Teddy looks at me now, and I remember his eyes from behind the bars at the shelter, I absolutely
know the risk I took was worth it, even when he's not being particularly lovable.

The Wisdom Etched in Pewter Bar, which were offering (search for item #26141), eloquently says what I experienced before
adopting Teddy:

listen to your heart
listen to your soul
listen to your body
then make up your mind

My wish for you this summer is that this 'listening' becomes more and more a part of your life.